Exhibitions
by crackberries
Summary: Exhibition A: The wild nerd, having been egged on by his friends, tears it up on the dance floor. Exhibition B: The timid nerd sits on the bleachers, wondering if he should join.


**an: **lolwut. Gilbert is a nerdy name and Matthew has a nerdy design (which I love) and for once I want to make Prussia unpopular without making him a punk or delinquent. I can totally imagine them being the best badass nerds ever. Also, I want to write some nerds because I am the most ballin' nerd ever.

another old one-shot off my ipod. I'm slowly but surely gonna edit and put them all up :D

**disclaimer: **disclaimer

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When he moved to a new area in the summer before ninth grade, there was one thing Matthew Williams had been excited about: prom. He had a decent set of dance skills acquired from years of watching comedies and learning novelty dances, and he had been popular in middle school for those moves.

Unfortunately, when Matthew moved from B.C to Ontario, and started high-school, he fell in with the wrong crowd. Oh no, not the gangsters or the drug dealers, no, life hated Matthew like that. The group he fell in with was wrong on a whole different level; they were the ones who went into a flying rage when their mothers cancelled their World of Warcraft accounts and had parties celebrating the anniversary of a theorem or scientific discovery.

And so, nearly four years later, prom came up and Matthew did not get into a limousine with a nice tux, a pretty date, tons of friends and a hotel reservation for the after-party. Instead, he was crammed into the back of Alfred's mom's station wagon, wearing a khaki coloured rental tux, sandwiched between Arthur, the president of the book club, and Kiku, star player of the school ping pong team. Alfred, who had been grinning back at them from the passenger seat for a good portion of the ride, was considered the most "normal" of them all. His shining quality that allowed him to not get beat up was that he played on the school football team; he wasn't the star player or anything, but he was a player none the less.

Matthew sighed as they reached the school and pushed his wiry glasses up his nose. A few months ago, he had been under the impression that aviators were cool; unfortunately that only applied to sunglasses. He couldn't find his contacts that afternoon, so he had to resort to wearing what Alfred called his "sex offender" glasses.

"Man, I'm so frickin' excited!" Alfred exclaimed as they pulled into the parking lot by the side of the building. Matthew was thankful for that; having people who came in limos taunt them about their ride would not be a good way to start a "night to remember".

The four of them walked into the building, Alfred enthusiastically leading the group while Matthew sort of trailed behind. Before coming, he had read his journals from the beginning of high-school, and this definitely fell way below what his expectations were.

The gym where prom was being held was full of tacky streamers and balloons. Tables were set up, but a good majority of the students were either dancing or sitting on the bleachers and talking.

As soon a they walked in, Alfred made a beeline towards the snack table, where he was again, for the hundredth time, going to try and score with the head cheerleader, a insanely hot and cruel platinum blond by the name of Natalia. Kiku had migrated towards their other friends, a bunch of hardcore gamers and, for lack of better word, weeaboos who worshipped him purely because he was Japanese. Arthur had joined his book club fellows, all wearing the same matching tweed three-piece.

This meant Matthew had to resign himself to sitting alone on the bleachers for a very long time like he did at the semi-formal, simply because even though he had hung out with those people for most of his high school career, he still felt out of place with them.

And so, for the next hour or so, Matthew Williams had to sit on the sidelines, watching as people ghosted past him. Not one girl asked him to dance- well there was Feliks, but he was only _dressed_ as a girl and had been whisked away by his friend Toris before Matthew could accept or decline. Matthew himself could not bring anyone to dance; in the ninth grade, he had, and had been rejected purely on the fact that he was wearing a three day old Star Wars shirt.

Matthew kept himself entertained by scanning the gym for people doing funny things.

In one corner was an exchange student from Spain, who was chattering away with an irritated Italian. He said something that made the their turn completely red and bitch-slap hum before he turned and stalked away, causing the Spanish kid to laugh harder.

In another corner was another kid, pale as a ghost, trying to hit on a gorgeous brunette, then being pushed away by her boyfriend, who matthew recognized from band.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Alfred, who for a change actually seemed to be having a decent conversation with Natalia.

Yup. Everyone had someone to be with, except for Matthew. Such was life, and Matthew wished he had at least brought his DS with him. Or a Rubik's cube. Or anything to kill his boredom till his eleven o'clock curfew.

The over-enthusiastic DJ announced that everyone should go grab their favourite boy or girl, because it was about to get romantic in there.

Matthew considered asking a rather buxom blond girl to dance, just for kicks, but her brother seemed to be on the rather intimidating so he scrapped the idea.

There also Michelle, a friendly girl who had just moved from...Seychelles? Something like that, but Francis Bonnefoy had already snatched her up. Matthew could really see no option, an Feliks didn't look like he was coming back any time soon. He couldn't just ask a guy (who was dressed like a guy) to dance either, otherwise he'd for sure end up becoming the laughing stock. Again.

It looked like Matthew Williams would have to sit this one out too. He watched as the students took the floor, and slightly laughed at Alfred's over enthusiastic face as he wrapped an around Natalia's waist.

The number was extremely slow, with both a male and a female voice crooning. Couples moved around in what was supposed to be a romantic dance, but looked more like awkward shuffling. Matthew was going bored with watching people move around like they were half dead, but he didn't really have anything else to do.

Then, halfway through the song, something caught his eye. More like someone. Who was catching everyone's eye. Matthew watched as the pale kid from before moved onto the dance floor, solo. He was wearing a deep purple suit with a black dress shirt underneath and a bright yellow tie. He had black, horn rimmed glasses and platinum-almost-white hair gelled into a comb over.

Matthew recognized him as Gilbert Beilschmidt, a good friend of Kiku's, and the school math whiz. He was apparently a hardcore gamer an really into robotics and was "one of us."

The teen had moved right into the middle of the floor, kicking balloons aside. From the refreshment table, Matthew saw a smiling brunet give Gilbert a thumbs up, while a taller blond had his head in his hands. His eyes travelled back to Gilbert, who seemed to be tapping his foot and counting out the beat to something.

It started with a slight fist pump. Then Gilbert started bobbing his head in time with the song. Soon, another hand joined in the fist pumping, and he started rotating his hips along to the music. As the singers wailed in the background, Gilbert seemed to be slowly building energy. Couples around him gave him both space and an extremely weary eye, as he started to flail his arms around. People were used to Gilbert Beilschmidt, one of the "weirdest nerds" in the school. Matthew pressed his lips together as he heard a wolf whistle directed towards Gilbert, trying not to laugh while he watched the other shake his legs and move his arms.

The song switched to something more upbeat but still lovey dovey- some song about Romeos and Juliets. Gilbert picked up the pace with this song, lifting his arms up to his chest and doing a small booty shake. Matthew couldn't help it any longer, and burst out laughing.

Even though he was normally quiet and timid, when Matthew laughed his genuine laugh, it was as loud and obnoxious as Alfred's. Loud enough to draw attention of people over the music, and much to Matthew's discomfort, people looked at him. He covered his mouth, and they turned back to their partners. He was glad that situation had been averted, and laughed at a lesser volume.

His laughter died out as he saw the person he was laughing at looking at him as well, having stopped dancing. He slightly grimaced, thinking of how to apologize, and a pout formed on Gilbert's mouth.

_Oh crap. _No, that wasn't an I'm-pissed-at-you pout, no, that was a I'm-mocking-Jersey-Shore pout, complete with the evil glint in the eyes. Gilbert stood his legs wide apart, held his arms out by his side, beckoning with his hands. Matthew watched in horror as the other teen started rotating and thrusting his pelvis towards him. Yeah, this was probably payback for the time Matthew had beaten Gilbert on a unit test by 0.5% for Calculus, gaining status as the highest average in the class.

Matthew saw Gilbert bringing his fists up to his chest again, and did a move that Matthew had previously only seen in music videos. Matthew turned red, and was thankful that no one else had noticed him. He would just remain on the benches and...

...sit there...

...while his friends are dancing...

...for the rest of the dance...

...damn.

Upon seeing Gilbert starting to crank dat on the floor to Taylor Swift, Matthew's train of thought was changing. That guy _did _look like he was having a lot of fun, even if it was by himself. He looked very self-satisfied as he continued to dance.

Matthew suddenly had the urge to join the other on the dance floor and pull out his own moves. Except everyone would probably start laughing at him, and tease him, and call him names like four-eyes which they have been doing all throughout highschool...

...so if he went up there and danced, it really wouldn't make a difference, right? But then Matthew saw Alfred, who had Natalia now leaning on his chest, and Arthur dancing with Michelle, having managed to steal her away from Francis. If he embarrassed himself, he'd embarrass them, and it looked like things were going well for them.

Then again...he wouldn't really be seeing most of these people after graduation anyways...so it shouldn't really matter, right? They evidently didn't care what he thought of them, so it shouldn't matter vice versa.

Matthew found himself standing up and brushing the pants of his suit. Swallowing, and hoping his slight confidence would last long enough. He slowly walked towards the dance floor, pushing his glasses further up his nose. He snaked by the couples till he made it to where Gilbert was dancing.

"H-hey."" He said quietly, and Gilbert somehow managed to hear him over the music.

"Matthew from Calculus, right?" He asked, slightly breathless, slowing down his steps. "Aren't my dance moves fucking awesome?"

"Uh-uh...sure..?"

"C'mon, you should try it too!"

Matthew stood there, watching as Gilbert resumed his dancing. He swayed slightly, not really knowing when or how to join in. Gilbert raised his palm upwards, and started to "raise the roof", and Matthew lifted his too, weakly.

"More effort, kid!" Gilbert sidled over so he was by Matthew's side, trying to encourage him. "Gotta be as awesome as me!"

Matthew eyed the other warily, but started to put more energy into it.

_This is actually...not that bad._

"Yeah, that's how you do it, kid!" Gilbert said happily, as he started to spin on the spot while raising the roof. Matthew mirrored his actions, and found that yes, this was actually sort of fun.

Soon, they were both dancing like a bunch of mad men, Gilbert kesese'ing the whole time. Gilbert moved his body side to side, snapping his fingers as Matthew did an enthusiastic rendition of the water sprinkler. It was when Gilbert started to do the stanky leg, that Matthew knew he had found a friend. Even though he hadn't had an opportunity to use them, he still kept up with what were the "in" dances.

They both started to dougie along to the music, which had finally picked up, Gilbert with a cocky expression on his face and Matthew with his own wide grin. People, by now, had noticed, and there were a few wolf whistles as the two danced with enormous amounts of spunk.

They both fully knew that people were laughing _at _them, and this probably would result in a ton of bullying and teasing after the weekend was over, but they didn't care. They were breaking it down like mofo's on the dance floor, and as Gilbert was constantly reminding Matthew, they were too "awesome" for everyone else to handle. At one point, Matthew was pretty sure that Gilbert's brother, Ludwig, tried to come and drag Gilbert away, but through the act of dance, Gilbert conveyed that bitch _please, _he was too amazing to leave. Through his peripheral vision, Matthew could see Alfred egging him on happily, with Natalia beside him, who had the faintest hint of a smile.

Then, the proverbial clock struck ten fifty, signaling that Matthew and his crew were becoming late for their eleven o'clock curfew. He watched as Alfred, Arthur, and Kiku left the gym (without him, what the hell?) and took it as his cue to dip.

"I'll...I'll see you later, eh?" He huffed to Gilbert, slightly winded from the dancing.

"Where ya headin'?"

"Home, I have to be back by eleven and I'm already running late."

Ludwig overheard, and used this as an opportunity to tell Gilbert that yes, they had to go home now, and no, he couldn't say no. Gilbert flipped him off, and Ludwig sighed and told Gilbert that he could very well just walk home, and stalked out of the gym. Gilbert slung an arm around Matthew and started to pull him out as well, and they could hear applause and laughter as the two left.

"Yo, kid," Gilbert said, slapping Matthew's back as they finally stumbled through the large doors into the cool night air. "You're the shit, man. That was almost as awesome as me."

"Thanks." Matthew replied back, smiling as he scanned the parking lot for the station wagon.

"You know, you should totally come clubbing with me and my brother once. I bet you'd totally rip it up in there."

Matthew thought about that for a moment. He wasn't 18 yet, but he still had his fake ID from when he and Alfred tried to sneak into a bar for a concert for some obscure band. If tonight was anything to go by, going out to a club where he didn't really know anyone, therefore could risk doing whatever he wanted, seemed very appealing.

"Sure," he grinned. "When?"

"Tomorrow night, down at De Lay's. We'll come and get you at 8. Best club _ever_ and you and I are going to go there, and fucking own that shit."

Matthew saw Alfred's hand waving, and nodded. He wasn't sure how he was going to break his curfew (last time he did, his parents had cut all his gaming subscriptions and _that _had been a disaster) or find something socially appropriate to wear to a club, but he figured he'd manage.

"Sure thing." he started to jog towards the car, and heard Gilbert call out, "Dress good if you wanna score big!"

Yeah, sometimes taking initiative and dancing like a maniac at prom did have its benefits.

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Somehow I can imagine Gilbert being the stereotypical evil nerd- the one that bitches at you if you do something wrong does all the work themselves and poisons your sandwich so he has less competition in the science fair.

I dance the way Gilbert dances and I'm definitely not ashamed. I also love dances like the dougie, lean wit it rock wit it, soulja boy, jerkin, stanky legg, and what not because I am such an interesting person or whatever.

Reviews are really appreciated :D


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